Legislation adopted in the 2003 session required the 39 cities with local B&O taxes to adopt a city B&O tax model ordinance. (RCW 35.102) The last update occurred in 2007, with required changes to take effect by January 2008.

Over the summer a workgroup of cities, in consultation with the business community, revised the model ordinance to include changes to RCW 35.102 and to reflect other changes made to state law since 2008. The model ordinance revisions are now final and all cities with local B&O taxes have to adopt the mandatory portions of the changes by the end of the year, to take effect by January 1, 2013.

The 2012 revised model ordinance reflects six changes to the 2007 version of the model, primarily reflecting changes in state law:

Board of Director licensing and tax – (.030) Engaging in business definition clarification that the board meeting nexus exclusion applies to the corporation, not the individual board members or consultants attending meetings.

“Super Nexus” provision repeal – (.060) reflects requirements that allocation and apportionment provisions in RCW 35.102.130 (.077 of model ordinance) should be used for contracts with the city executed after January 1, 2008.

Insurance business preemption – (.090) updates language to reflect preemption of taxation of insurers/appointed insurance producers in RCW 48.14.020(4) and repeal of RCW 48.17.010-020 (earlier version included in non-mandatory guidelines).

First mortgage deduction – (.100) updates language to refer to state required tax treatment in RCW 82.14A (earlier version included in non-mandatory guidelines).

2007 B&O Tax Model Ordinance

EHB 2030 (Chapter 79, Laws of 2003), the city B&O legislation adopted in the 2003 session, require the 39 cities with local B&O taxes to adopt allocation and apportionment provisions as part of an updated city B&O tax model ordinance by January 1, 2008. (RCW 35.102.130)

2005 Background B&O tax apportionment and allocation study

The Department of Revenue was required by ESHB 2030, passed in 2003, to complete a study on the impacts of the apportionment provisions that go into effect in 2008 (RCW 35.102.130). The final impact estimates show a $23 million impact for 39 of the 40 cities with local B&O taxes, based on 2004 data. More (pdf – may take a while to download)